Thursday, 31 May 2007

Flashback Part 1

I am crouching in the grass, the sun is casting dappled light through the trees around the clearing, and the deer I have been visiting are just starting to make their way into the forest for the night. Noticing a flash of red through the grass stems, I crouch down to collect some mageroyal, the grass tickling my arm as I wrestle with the root; my skill at gathering herbs is growing but I need more practise yet.My mind is elsewhere, the forest and the animals which dwell there speak with my soul and I share my energy with them as I walk home through the forest. When I get there I am to tell my parents my decision and today I have finally made up my mind. I have made my decision to become a druid, it seems there was never any other path for me. I have always known that this was my destiny, from a tiny child I have felt one and the same with nature, been able to communicate with and draw strength from that life force. Tomorrow I will travel to Aldrassil to the Druid trainer to begin my long apprenticeship. The thought fills me with excitement and apprehension. Tales of adventurers have often been told around the moonwells at night, the exploits filling my mind with wonder and delight, but the prospect of joining those adventurers in the world outside Teldrassil makes me nervous. Do I have it within me to make my way out there? All I know is that I have a mighty mountain to climb and I hope I will learn to use the power of nature to guide me and give me strength.I reach the entrance to the valley as the sun begins to turn its autumn amber hue. Suddenly I sense something on the breeze, within seconds it turns from a mere suggestion of a certain taint, to a sense of chaos, an upheaval, an earthquake, a torrent of evil...I run down the valley to the stream, to see the spot where I have hopped across the crystal waters each evening in my life running with a red river. A vile and tortured sense of unnatural force is suddenly overcoming me and smothering me and I fall to my knees, the sensation of a rip, a tear in the fabric of Elune's dear land runs through my head as I gasp to bring out the bile which rises in my throat...I look up and see the amber glow has been replaced by a blood red sunset, casting dark and sombre shadows through the valley and silhouetted against this scarlet sky is a grotesque figure. As it approaches I desperately try to meld into the surface of the stream, but my mind is too filled with horror and all I can do is watch as it gets nearer...